One Mum's Story

A chronically sick child in a family usually means a lot of hard work - and not a lot of spare time. But a sick child in Dianne Smith’s family meant she became involved in…volunteer work.

Dianne’s child has both food and chemical  allergies – that’s how she first became involved in Allergy New Zealand – as a concerned parent needing help and advice.

For the past three years, as well as working, Dianne has also been volunteering her time once a week for the organisation, helping with distribution of the Allergy Today magazine, compiling information packs and checking allergy-safe recipes to be published in Allergy Today.

Dianne says her volunteer work doesn’t just help her understand and learn about the allergies her son has.  It gives her the opportunity to help Allergy New Zealand provide the same service for other allergy suffers and their families in need, work she finds interesting and rewarding.

“In fact I love it so much, ” says Dianne, “ I encouraged one of my close friends to start volunteering with me at Allergy New Zealand.”

Allergy New Zealand’s volunteer manager, says her organisation offers a variety of volunteering roles … and whatever time a volunteer can spare - no matter how small - is appreciated.  ‘The agency could not survive without the support of our volunteer workers”.